Water Rocket!

A favorite toy of mine growing up was a water & air-powered rocket. Well, when Celeste and I were at Fry's over the weekend I came across a pretty close reproduction of the rocket that I launched dozens and dozens of times on hot summer days while living in Danville, IL (not a city worth visiting, trust me on this). The main difference is that my rocket had a translucent red nose cone and a red and white pump. Why do I remember this sort of minutiae?

five bucks, how could I say no?

We filled 'er up about half way with water (instructions state between 1/3 to 1/2 full) and pumped it 15 times to generate the needed air pressure.
Of course I never pumped mine more than 15 times (tongue planted firmly in cheek). After making sure the coast was clear we counted down for launch. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
LIFTOFF! With soaked shirts and firmly-planted smiles we watched it sail 10-12 feet up in the air. Not only sideways (as pictured), but on a few occasions actually up. Of course I remember my old rocket sailing hundreds and hundreds of feet, scraping the clouds hovering above Central Illinois. But everything seems bigger when you're a kid.